Life with Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher

About the Book: Book 1 in the ‘Adventures of Lily Lapp’ series.

Lily is six in this story, just starting first grade in a one-room schoolhouse in upstate New York. Her parents are busy building a farm, and soon animals join the family—Jenny the cow and Chubby the miniature horse. A baby brother arrives, too, which Lily has mixed feelings about. (She wanted a sister!) Aside from a mischievous friend like Mandy Mast, Lily is happy at school and even happier at home.

Trouble is brewing at the schoolhouse and change is on the horizon for Lily and her family

 

My thoughts:

I had the opportunity to review this book as part of a Litfuse Blog tour.  I have really enjoyed the Amish fiction that I have read recently and I was excited to get a book to read that I would be able to share with my daughter.  Last month we drove to Lancaster, PA and we saw Amish people in buggies all over the place and she and her brother all had a lot of question about why they rode in buggies and more.  This seemed like such a good idea for a way to answer some of those questions in a fun way and to help children (not just mine but others as well) understand a group of people they may see and interact with, but not quite understand.

 

I think this book did a really good job of portraying what life is like in an Amish community for both parents and children.  It especially did a good job of showing how children are treated and what they think about the ways things are.  I loved how much Lily appreciated her one rag doll, how she played with her and dressed her in clothes and how she didn't seem to think that she needed more.  So many people are always looking to have more and more, when we can not ever possibly use all that we have, that it was refreshing to see a different view point on possessions.

 

Another aspect I really liked about the story was how it showed that just being Amish does not mean that everyone is perfect.  When Lily first goes to school she has a teacher she loves who makes learning fun for all the children in the school house (which covers all children up to eighth grade).  When that teacher is in an accident and has to leave the new teacher is nothing like her.  School is no longer as much fun as it had been before. 

 

It will be interesting to see what happens in the second book and to see how long this series goes on for as Lily ages a year or two over the course of this one.

 

 

Landing page: http://litfusegroup.com/campaigns/life-with-lily-kindlenook-giveaway-1016-author-chat-party-with-suzanne-woods-fisher-and-mary-ann-kinsinger-and-blog-tour

 

 

Link to buy the book:http://ow.ly/e60PH 

 

Meet Suzanne: Suzanne Woods Fisher lives with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has one husband, four children, one son-in-law, a brand new grand-baby, and a couple of dogs. She graduated from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.

Suzanne has contracts with Revell for six more books about the Amish, both fiction and non-fiction. She is also the host of “Amish Wisdom·” on toginet.com, a weekly radio program featuring guests who are connected to Simple Living.

Find out more about Suzanne at http://suzannewoodsfisher.com/.